The Mirai worm made its way into information security lore in September, when it was identified as the source of the punishing flood of junk traffic launched against Brian Krebs in retaliation for his investigative reporting about a couple of petty Israeli criminals; subsequent analysis showed Mirai to be amateurish and clumsy, and despite this, […]

James Cawley is a 50 year old Elvis impersonator from Ticonderoga, NY; his friend William Ware Theiss was costume-designer for the original Star Trek series, and left Cawley the blueprints for the original Star Trek Enterprise sets in his will — so Cawley rented out a 13,000 sqft shuttered supermarket and built an exquisite replica […]

For the past week, Naked Capitalism has run a series of articles by transportation industry expert Hubert Horan on the economic shenanigans of Uber, which cooks the numbers it shows investors, drivers and the press to make it seem like something other than a black box that uses arrogance and lawlessness to make a bet […]

The Black Friday Mac Bundle 2.0 is one of the Boing Boing Store’s best-selling Mac bundles yet, and it’s about to come to an end. If you don’t get your copy now, here’s what you’ll be missing:This bundle comes packing 9 top-rated Mac apps in one package, at the hugely discounted price of just $23.99. […]

The Boing Boing Store’s Gift Guide is full of ideas for pretty much anyone in your life like hipster ice cub trays, Xbox controllers, Halo Boards, and even diamond necklaces. As always, all products in the Boing Boing Store come at great discounts, too. Shop by price bucket starting at under $20. Under $20:Bloxx Jumbo Ice Trays […]

Unlike traditional lighters, the SaberLight features an electronic plasma beam that’s both rechargeable and butane-free. This sleek lighter is even approved by TSA, so you’ll never be stuck buying lighters you’ll just have to throw away partially used. For some people, like me, this is a pretty big game-changer. The SaberLight’s beam is actually both hotter and cleaner […]

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I often wonder how useful this kind of advertising really is; I mean the advertising on youtube has no impact on me whatever, other than the minor nuisance of getting rid of it as quickly as possible. Sometimes the obtrusiveness of web advertising makes you particularly unreceptive to it.

Adblock plus for Firefox does also block all the ads on YouTube for me, and as far as I know I’m not doing anything different. In fact, I was pretty shocked when I watched a Youtube video on a friend’s computer and had to sit there waiting for an advert, I thought he’d installed the wrong tool-bar or got hacked or something.

Well, yeah, we saw this coming. I’m just surprised more companies haven’t stopped spending on Facebook. It’s easy enough to have a robust presence there without paying for ads (that don’t work). What’s scary is what Facebook will have to do next to appease disappointed advertisers in order to appease expectant shareholders. It’s really the beginning of the end for Facebook… http://mankabros.com/blogs/onmedea/2012/01/27/facebook-and-the-disappearing-valuation/

What this is is that GM wants to buy some Facebook stock. Note that last line: “The news comes just days before Facebook’s planned IPO.” that is the main reason this is noteworthy. This looks (to me) like an attempt by GM to reduce the share value in any way possible. GM LOVES to purchase chunks of other companies so this seems right in their wheel house.

It blows my mind that not once in the feverish coverage of the Facebook IPO has the words “dot bomb” or “bubble” been used, let alone “MySpace”. Memories are short. And the real tragedy is that normal smart investors will be caught in the mess if Facebook tanks once the realisation that the ads are the only source of income, and they are inherently valueless sinks in.

Indeed, IPOs are not really the opportunity that they seem to be – unless they’re chronically mispriced. The point at which the private money is getting out, and bringing public money in, would seem to indicate that most of the running has been made.

Worth considering that something like one in eight people in the world now have Facebook accounts, it seems unlikely this can continue to increase. The only way FB can make more money is selling more ads and data – which will alienate existing subscribers.